Health Pak: A Toitū enviromark gold case study
Health Pak is a dynamic New Zealand manufacturer, globally recognised as being a supplier of outstanding products. Health Pak services the cosmetic, personal care, food, pharmaceutical, advertising and sales promotional industries.
Toitū enviromark gold certification is proof that we are striving to make our manufacturing practices as environmentally sound as we can.
What drew you into a formal environmental management programme?
In our industry, we are the only manufacturer in Australasia. Our main competitors’ products are all sourced from China and as such are much cheaper. There is also plenty of greenwash in our marketplace. We needed to show our potential customers the value in purchasing New Zealand made products that are environmentally proven. We chose to embark on an Environmental Management programme in order to back up any claims that we make and to prove to our customers that we are as committed to environmentally sound practices as they want us to be. We chose Toitū enviromark certification as it has a robust independent auditing process and they offered the support that we needed to get us on the right track to success.
Health Pak produced packaging for these Fair Trade products.
Which of your achievements are you most proud of and why?
Health Pak produced packaging for these Fair Trade products.
We are most proud of achieving Toitū enviromark gold status and maintaining it. It took a lot of hard work over a couple of years to get to that level, but we had decided from the beginning that we wanted to get to Gold so with the help of Toitū Envirocare staff we made it happen. This certification is proof that we are striving to make our manufacturing practices as environmentally sound as we can and we are meeting a high standard by achieving Gold status.
How has it changed what you do?
We had to really look hard at the way we do things within our factory. Through the Toitū enviromark process we have been able to identify a number of areas that we could improve on, but it has been a challenge to find ways of making these improvements. We made big improvements in our recycling processes and our efforts to reduce our waste. Now that we have been with the Toitū enviromark programme for a few years we find that the environmental perspective in our decision making processes is more significant than in the past. This can only be a benefit to our company and our customers who use our products.
Have you saved money because of your initiatives?
Yes – we have saved a lot of money! Our waste minimisation project has been evolving for the past 3 years, and in that time we have saved over $7,000 per year just on rubbish removal costs. Our rubbish to landfill dropped from 70% to 51% in one year and this can only get better. By replacing our Hi Bay lighting with energy efficient lighting we saved around $9,000 in the first year; this was an expensive exercise to begin with but it will have paid itself off within 3 years on the energy savings we have been able to achieve.
Health Pak produced packaging for these Bathe products.
In general, what kind of improvements have you made?
Through the initial Toitū enviromark bronze process we improved our Health & Safety Management, which has set us up well for making sure we comply with the new Health & Safety legislation. We have made big improvements in the way we deal with our waste, which is not only an environmental problem but a cost to our business too. Through the process of achieving first Toitū enviromark silver and then gold, we have developed a robust recycling programme in our factory which has resulted in significant cost savings and waste reductions. We have also improved our energy efficiency, which in turn has resulted in cost savings. By doing things the Toitū enviromark programme way we can prove what we have achieved and this is a significant benefit to us in our market.
For further information
Health Pak
P: 09 579 6268
W: www.healthpak.co.nz
Toitū enviromark gold certification
Toitū enviromark gold certified organisations have developed and implemented a comprehensive plan to help them achieve their environmental policy goals. They are measuring their significant impacts and are actively managing them.
To achieve Toitū enviromark gold certification, an organisation:
- Sets objectives and targets for driving improvement and has programmes in place to meet those targets;
- Develops, implements and tests environmental emergency plans;
- Identifies and evaluates their significant environmental issues arising from activities, products and services;
- Actively monitors their ongoing compliance with New Zealand legislation and ensures they are aware of any changes to obligations;
- Produces an environmental policy statement;
- Understands the scope of their EMS (i.e., are there any parts of the organisation that need to be excluded from the EMS and why);
- Exhibits no non-compliances with New Zealand’s applicable health and safety and environmental legislation.